[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 148 (Thursday, September 21, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H9426-H9431]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   AMERICAN CITIZENS RECENTLY SENTENCED TO IMPRISONMENT IN COMMUNIST 
                                VIETNAM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California [Mr. Dornan] is recognized for 30 minutes.
  Mr. DORNAN. Mr. Speaker, we have a tragic situation going on, as 
this, the most powerful, deliberative body in the free or democratic 
world, meets. We have American citizens sentenced to 7 and 9 years of 
imprisonment in Saigon, and some day it will be renamed Saigon again, 
not named after a Communist killer named Ho Chi Minh. Just as Lenin's 
name was removed from beautiful St. Petersburg in northern Russia, and 
as Stalin's name was removed from a strategic battle area in World War 
II, Stalingrad, and the city has back its less bloody name of 
Volgograd, some day it will be Saigon again. So as a free man, I will 
continue to call it Saigon.
  In Saigon, and I want to speak slowly for our official recorder of 
debate here, so we get these names right, and unfortunately, the 
Americans sentenced to prison in Saigon are naturalized Americans; as 
was Alexander Hamilton naturalized, as is Henry Kissinger, as are a lot 
of great Americans who have invented things and fought and died for 
this country and our liberty.
  Unlike Harry Wu, who I had a chance to meet as he was testifying 
before the Committee on International Relations of the gentleman from 
New York, Ben Gilman, they did not affect Christian first names, 
probably because they are not Christians, they are Buddhists. But if 
they had taken an anglicized name, it would be easier to imprint in the 
consciousness of the American people and freedom-loving people in 
Europe and around the world the name of a victim of Communist tyranny, 
as we were able to do with Mr. Wu, because he took my father's first 
name, Harry. ``Harry Wu'' became a battle cry for liberal Democrats 
like the gentlewoman from California, Nancy Pelosi. It got all mixed up 
with the trip of the First Lady over to the Beijing Conference, the 
very controversial U.N. conference.

                              {time}  1715

  So much international pressure that the Chinese communists in Beijing 
knew there would be no trip of Hillary Clinton if they did not release 
Harry Wu.
  But meanwhile, in the other Chamber, and I am going to go slow here 
so that I do not skirt a line and violate comity with the other Chamber 
on the north end of this building. But how is it that the Senate could 
vote yesterday blocking Senator Bob Smith of New Hampshire's reasonable 
amendment, endorsed by the chairman of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Helms, the 
chairman of Defense, Mr. Strom Thurmond, and the leader of the Senate 
and leading presidential candidate, Bob Dole? How is it that a bunch of 
Republicans over there could dismiss Senator Smith of New Hampshire's 
reasonable amendment that no trade negotiations could be furthered with 
United States taxpayers' money, let alone setting up an embassy in the 
communist capital of Hanoi, unless these human rights violations are 
reversed and these two Americans are set free, as Harry Wu was set free 
in China, and that we get a fullest accounting, that is a very key 
word. Not ``full'' or ``fully.'' But ``fullest'' means reasonable 
accounting with the communist giving up the politburo and the Communist 
Central Committee records on our missing in action.
  Unless those two things, and a handful of other reasonable small 
things, are conformed with by this communist government in Hanoi, as we 
put tremendous pressure on Castro and the communist government in 
Havana Cuba today, unless these reasonable requests are taken care of, 
then no money from the taxpayers of the United States Treasury should 
be provided to the communist government in Hanoi.
  There is a cover story on a national magazine in the last couple of 
weeks about communism being far from dead. Not as long as it is 
persecuting 1,260,000,000 people in China. That is the United States 
plus a billion people. Not as long as Russia is rebuilding its KGB 
apparatus under a new name, under one of their old leaders, Yevgeniy 
Primakov. I have met with him in KGB headquarters with Henry Hyde some 
years back. He is now helping to build up the intelligence capability 
of terrorist states like Iran, so designated by the State Department, 
even under liberal leadership under Clinton's appointed secretaries and 
under Secretaries.
  Not only do we have that emerging problem in the much-reduced empire 
that is now down to Russia and a few adjoining countries they consider 
within their hegemony, countries that rely on them for gas and oil and 
other critical things to keep cities running. There are terror regimes 
still, depending on how you count the numbers of people that are 
terrorized, in Cuba, North Korea, we do not get much argument on North 
Korea, and communist Vietnam.

  Very few, if any, Democrats in the other body, and most of the 
Republicans who voted against Mr. Smith, all of them as a matter of 
fact, they dropped the word ``communist'' from any discussion of 
Vietnam and Hanoi, using it occasionally because ``socialist'' is in 
their title, as it was with all the communist countries at the height 
of the cold war when they were killing and jailing people by the tens 
of thousands, and killed hundreds of thousands, if not millions, in the 
Vietnam Southeast Asia area and in the Korean War. They always 
substituted the word ``socialist'' for ``communist.'' Even they knew 
the dreaded impact of the word ``communist.''
  But with Cuba, North Vietnam, now all of tortured Vietnam, North 
Korea, and communist China still engaging in massive human rights 
violations, why are two naturalized United States citizens written off, 
rotting in prison for 2 years this November in Saigon?
  Here are their names: Nguyen, N-G-U-Y-E-N which is the Vietnamese 
cultural equivalent to Jones and Smith combined. It is the most common 
name in Vietnam society. Nguyen Tan Tri. Not a hard name to remember. 
Nguyen Tan Tri.
  He was given a 7-year sentence. Tran Quang Liem. My ninth grandchild 
is named Liam, Irish-Gaelic. Liem should not be so hard to remember. 
Mr. Tran and Mr. Nguyen, 7 and 4 years respectively sentenced, and the 
U.S. State Department said it was unwelcome; that it was an unwelcomed 
deed.
  Further on in the press release from an Associated Press story on 
August 16, the day after they were sentenced during our break; no one 
here to speak up for them on the House floor, myself included, the 
State Department statement goes on further to say that it was 
``disappointing.'' ``Disappointing and unwelcomed.''
  Disappointing, because the sentence happened 6 days after the U.S. 
Secretary of State, in the job that was first held by Thomas Jefferson, 
whose beautiful marble medallion is up here, Warren Christopher posed 
in front of a bust of communist killer, Ho Chi-Minh, 

[[Page H 9427]]
and 6 days later American citizens are sentenced to 6 and 4 years. 
Teddy Roosevelt, where are you when we need you to speak up for these 
two lost American citizens, Nguyen and Tran?
  And by the way, they are both constituents of the Orange County 
delegation from southern California. Then, another constituent who used 
to be one of mine when he first fled communism and arrived in 
Westminster, that city since the reapportionment is now represented by 
my pal, Dana Rohrabacher, this gentleman is thrown in prison--a 
businessman who went over there to promote democracy peacefully. But 
the communists have found out that if they capture businessmen, just 
like they are some Mafia thug operation, they can demand from their 
family in the United States ransom money, like it is King Richard the 
Lionhearted.
  We will spit them out of our communist country if you give us ransom 
money; $15 thousand is the going price. This businessman from 
Westminster, a member of the Lien Viet party, his name is Van Thanh 
Nguyen.
  Here is a lady from Corona, just up the road from me, the first city 
out of my district into L.A. County. She is another businesswoman, one 
of seven thrown in prison, ransom being demanded on them. Her name is 
Mrs. Binh Thy Nguyen, and then her married name, Tran. You can call her 
for short, Mrs. Binh Tran. She is rotting in prison.
  She was pregnant when they arrested her, and because she was 2 months 
pregnant and in great emotional distress and complications set in, they 
forced her to have an abortion. This is not China I am talking about, 
killing babies for gender selection and infanticide, on top of an 
abortion Holocaust even worse than the United States toll of 1,500,000 
American babies killed in their mother's womb. This is forced abortion 
in Saigon by a communist government. It is unbelievable.
  How about a monk, a Buddhist monk? Considering how it turned 
America's newspapers upside down when Buddhist monks immolated 
themselves in 1963 and 1964. Here is a monk who, without government 
permission, went to help the flood victims of the constant flooding, 
seasonally, of the Mekong River, and because he did it as a religious 
person, a Buddhist monk and a leader, he gets 4 years in prison. I will 
look up the exact time he is going to have to rot in prison. He goes to 
prison. They would not even give him the dignity of his religious name. 
His religious name is Thich Quang Do. They tried him under his former 
name, before he became a priest, and he is a deputy leader of the 
Unified Buddhist Church in Vietnam. But that is a church that believes 
in a Supreme Being, so it is banned in Vietnam.
  They said, ``You are undermining national solidarity,'' these are the 
communists speaking, ``and taking advantage of the right of freedom and 
democracy to damage the interests of the government and social 
institutions.''
  So, of course, great bipartisan groups like Human Rights Watch/Asia, 
have attacked this. Again, weak words from our State Department. So the 
Ho Chi Minh City, that is Saigon, People's Court jailed this monk for 5 
years.
  This is going on while the U.S. Senate debates, and my colleague, Bob 
Smith, pours his heart out. And then another one of my friends gets up 
and attacks me and another couple of Members of this House.


                         parliamentary inquiry

  Mr. DORNAN. Mr. Speaker, I may have to ask for some parliamentary 
guidance on this. I was described as insignificant, Mr. Speaker, by a 
U.S. Senator. That is OK. I am a peacetime combat-trained warrior. But 
our colleague and friend, one of the greatest heroes, including all the 
heroes who came home from World War II, who serves in this Chamber, was 
attacked also as insignificant, Sam Johnson of Dallas, TX.
  Sam spent 7 years in Communist captivity; 3\1/2\ years in solitary 
confinement. Was one of the most tortured men, and one of those so 
loyal that like other people, would not play basketball or volleyball 
or decorate fake Christmas trees, because he knew they would be filmed 
and used in propaganda films. He and 10 other men stood up to the 
Communist manipulation of them.
  He was put in a little camp that they, with great American bravado 
and spirit, called Alcatraz, and for 11 years, Senator Jeremiah Denton, 
who served 6 great years in the other body, and Coker and McKnight and 
another hero who just died recently in a plane crash that his grown son 
mercifully survived, God's calls are strange indeed, sometimes. Eleven 
of the best, including a man who got the Medal of Honor that Alcatraz 
camp, who Ross Perot chose to be his Vice President in 1992, James Bond 
Stockdale.
  They are all on a letter that I will put in the Record saying that we 
should not normalize relations with Vietnam.
  My squadron commander, Robby Risner, also tortured months on end, as 
was Sam Johnson and James Bond Stockdale, decorated with the Air Force 
Cross. They are in agreement with me. Are they also insignificant, as 
this Senator has called me?
  I want to ask a question to the Chair, because I want this to be 
perfect, what I put in the Record according to our rules of the House. 
Since I am mentioning a Senator, responding to him, trying to be 
respectful, I am not allowed to mention his name; is that correct, Mr. 
Speaker? Would you ask the Parliamentarian.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Hobson). For the benefit of the Member, 
the Chair will read the pertinent language of clause 1 of rule XIV. 
``Debate may include references to actions taken by the Senate, or by 
committees thereof, which are a matter of public record, and factual 
descriptions relating to Senate action or inaction concerning a measure 
then under debate in the House, but may not include characterizations 
of Senate action or inaction, or other references to individual Members 
of the Senate.''
  Members will recall that on October 8, 1991, the Chair held as 
unparliamentary remarks in debate advocating certain Senate action with 
respect to the pending nomination of Judge Clarence Thomas for 
appointment to the Supreme Court.
  Members should be guided by that recent precedent. The Chair expects 
the cooperation of all Members in maintaining a level of decorum that 
dignifies the proceedings of this body and maintains comity with the 
other body.
  Mr. DORNAN. Mr. Speaker, you will certainly get that. Let me ask one 
clarification problem. Yesterday's Congressional Record is public 
record now. Now, how can I discuss that debate and the words in that 
debate? Further clarification, if I do not mention a Senator's name, 
can I read his--well, I have already eliminated the seven or eight 
women over there--can I read his remarks from the public Record, the 
Congressional Record of yesterday? I know I can give the results of the 
vote.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. It is the Chair's understanding that the 
reference is improper unless there is a measure under consideration in 
the House.
  Mr. DORNAN. There is.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Only when under debate, then on the floor of 
the House, that the gentleman should refrain from referring to the 
proceedings in the Senate.
  Mr. DORNAN. Right There is nothing on the House floor now, except my 
Special Order. So that is not the business relating to this business of 
Vietnam.
  However, we have in conference a unanimous agreement by voice vote, 
with the only debate carried by the aforementioned Sam Johnson of 
Dallas, TX, a House item in our International Relations conference that 
no money shall be expended from the U.S. Public Treasury to send an 
ambassador to Vietnam, or to increase the size of our delegation there 
beyond what is was on July 12.
  Now, since that has already passed the House and it is in conference, 
and the conference is pending, and I am meeting with the conferees in 5 
minutes, does that make me able to make the case in countervention to 
the Senate case made yesterday that lost 58 to 39?

                              {time}  1730

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Hobson). The short answer is no, you may 
not speak in characterization of that.
  Mr. DORNAN. Right. OK, let me broaden this.

[[Page H 9428]]

  Mr. Speaker, I am not a courtroom attorney, and I do not want to be 
unfairly clever since I have already mentioned part of this, and do a 
Jonathan Swift ``Gulliver's Travels'' trick here that I see happen all 
the time on the other side of the aisle now, and talk about 
characterizations. But let me broaden it out then to those people out 
there in America who try to compare Vietnam to Germany where we won the 
war, hung the war criminals, walked the battlefields, solved most 
missing in action, captured most of the archives, and sill had young 
Americans disappear into Stalin's gulag. Because our Soviet ally became 
our enemy before the ink was dry on the German unconditional signed 
surrender.
  When this debate is couched in these terms on Communist Vietnam, that 
people hope the debate will go away, that it is over, the inflammatory 
language coming only from the House of Representatives, so few in 
number, although there is more than a few of us, that we are 
insignificant, that Mr. Clinton was right to normalize relations with 
Vietnam. Actually, that was his fifth deed in a rapid 18 months to try 
and insert this Communist dictatorship into the civilized nations of 
the world. And when people say that the Nation breathed a sigh of 
relief that Vietnam was finally over, it is not over for the families 
of missing in action Americans.
  It is not over for the families of all of these people I have just 
discussed who are now in filthy, Communist dungeons in Saigon. It is 
not over for those who were arrested and throw in prison in Hanoi for 
wanting open elections. This is what is causing Castro to be embargoed 
into his fourth decade, because he will not have an election. He is 
dictator for life.
  What do we have in North Korea? For the first time in history, the 
worst of royal bloodline governments combined with Communist tyranny. A 
vicious dictator, Kim Il Sung, turns the reigns of power over to his 
pornography-loving and collecting son, Kim Jong Il, and it is ill for 
the country.
  They are busy with Communist China and Iran, developing missiles and 
nuclear warheads to combine them with those missiles, and we have to 
spend millions and millions of United States taxpayers dollars to watch 
them like a hawk, with satellite imagery and slant imagery from outside 
their borders to make sure that they do not ignite that whole pathetic 
torn little peninsula into yet another Korean war.
  Remember, when Clinton went to the dedication of one of the most 
stirring, tear-ripping memorials in this city, the Korean War Memorial, 
different from the Vietnam Memorial which was made sacred the second 
the first hero's name was chiseled into the wall, but to this date, 
still does not have an American flag on it. The American flag was 
pushed into the woods along with the statute of three heroic Americans 
coming out of the woods looking at the State Department, one African-
American, one Hispanic heritage American, and one just generally Anglo-
looking American. That statue and a plaque at the base of the flag that 
says they served under difficult circumstances. Yes, alluding to a war 
criminal named Robert Strange, and Strange in his mother's maiden name. 
People ask me if I make that up. Robert Strange McNamara, a war 
criminal, is on his way to Hanoi and it is being set up for him by the 
Council on Foreign Relations.
  Friends of mine like our speaker and Alexander Haig and Bill Buckley, 
my pal, and other distinguished Americans who belong to the Council on 
Foreign Relations, ask me why I have never joined and why my friend, 
Ronald Reagan, who slam-dunked George Bush in 1980 on February 23, 
1980, and I was the only one there for Reagan when he said, ``I do not 
belong and I never will.''
  They wonder why some of us find not a conspiracy, but an elitist 
group, people who do not care about the average family as kids die in 
these wars. They are sending a team over to Hanoi next week to grease 
the path for war criminal Robert Strange McNamara who walked off the 
battlefield on the bloodiest month of the war, January 30 through 
February 29. He resigned on leap year day, February 29, 1968, so he 
would only have to think about it every 4 years, and then he went on 
vacation for a month at Aspen and skied while our hospitals were filled 
to capacity, the worst month of the whole 10-year decade, with 
amputees, double amputees and yes, triple amputees, more blind American 
soldiers in hospitals, four or five nurses dead, women captured and 
dying on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, forced marches up to the North, and 
McNamara is skiing in Aspen for the whole month of March in 1968.
  But that wasn't enough. Then he went to the Caribbean for another 
week to meet with officials that he was going to serve with at the 
World Bank, and then he went off to the World Bank, thanks to one of 
our corrupt Presidents, corrupt in all of the history books if you read 
them, and not even carefully, either, it is right out there blatant. 
Ask Bill Moyers about corruption, including womanizing.
  Then we see McNamara at the Caribbean about to start drawing his 
World Bank salary that he drew for 13 years at $250,000 a year. I must 
slow down and say this carefully three times: Tax free, tax free, tax 
free, and the Library of Congress told me in now dollars that is 
between $900,000 and $1 million a year. For 13 years McNamara, the 
architect of Vietnam, who created that immoral, sick vocabulary of 
gradualism, escalated response, strategic hamlets, body bags, fire 
fights, body counts, free fire zones, and the worst of all to airmen, 
Mig sanctuaries and SAM missile sites protected as they are built and 
only allowed to be targets intermittently after they have killed your 
wing man. Unbelievable.

  And people are saying, in this city, that it is good, that Vietnam is 
over and the American people overwhelmingly want it over.
  Well, I guess I cannot put the Congressional Record in the Record 
here. It would be redundant, but I would like it to be a part of my 
debate, so I would ask people, the million-plus audience of C-SPAN who 
quite intelligently and historically follows the proceedings of this 
Chamber, Mr. Speaker, I would tell them that I can read this, something 
congratulatory, Bob Dole saying he hopes the House language prevails on 
the Missing In Act we are trying to enact into law. Here is a letter 
from 85 former POW's. Lt. Gen. John Peter Flynn, Robinson Risner, 
Brigadier General, my former squadron commander, Sam Johnson, our proud 
Member of Congress, Eugene ``Red'' McDaniel, the most tortured man in 
all of those captive men. Anybody tortured beyond him died under 
torture. And ``Red'' was one of the ones that helped to get this 
letter. I am looking at those who have written great books and are 
still inspirational speakers. Charlie Plum. It is a roll call of the 
bravest and the best. Michael Benge, who was over there 11 years, Col. 
Ted Guy, who testified before my Military Personnel subcommittee on 
June 28, Ted Guy, 4 years in solitary confinement. He was Senator John 
McCain's commander at the Plantation POW camp.
  Look at this list. Here is Jack Bomar, one of the four colonels. They 
had four bird colonels in their hands. Leo Thorsness is my pal, Medal 
of Honor winner, former Senator in the State of Washington, now 
president of the Medal of Honor group.
  As former POW's in Vietnam, here is what they say led by Red 
McDaniel, now president of the Defense Policy Association, ``I strongly 
support the House version of the Missing Persons Act.'' And yet on 
``Meet The Press,'' a member of a legislative body around here told me 
that my figures were wrong when I said most POW's supported the 
gentleman from New York, Mr. Gilman, and Bob Dole's language on this.
  Here is a letter from the National Alliance of Families. I have a 
letter from Ann Griffith and the League of Families. Here is a letter 
from the Korean Cold War Family Association of The Missing. These three 
I am pretty sure, yes, I know I can put them in the record. Vietnam 
Veterans of America. The Marine Corps League, just came in yesterday. A 
letter to Floyd Spence, chairman of the Committee on National Security 
from Ted Guy. Veterans of the Vietnam war from their program director.
  Mr. Speaker, I will include all of these following my remarks.
  Disabled American Veterans. A letter to my counterpart on the Senate 
side, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Military 
Personnel to Dan Coats, our good friend and 

[[Page H 9429]]
colleague who served with us here. From John Sommer, executive director 
of the American Legion. I cannot put that in, because it is critical of 
a member of the other body. The sister of Maj. Robert F. Coady begging 
that it go in. Pat Plumadore, who has lost a family member. The sister 
of a marine missing. When I went on ``Meet The Press'' and said 
that overwhelmingly, veterans groups want this Missing Persons Act, so 
we will not relive the nightmare of Korea and Vietnam and oppose 
normalization with Vietnam. When I said most POW's, when I said most 
Vietnam veterans of that conflict and Vietnam veterans of Korea, when I 
gave the percentages on most Vietnamese-Americans, and it is about 85 
to 95 percent, when I talked about every person of the Democratic 
Freedom groups in Vietnam and in this country, and there is 1 million 
Vietnamese-Americans, about 700,000, 800,000 already American citizens, 
another 200,000 or 300,000, they have great family respect, a better 
than average birth rate among the Vietnamese community. This year or 
next, the Vietnamese-American community will tie the valiant anti-
Communist Cuban-American community, and the valiant anti-Communist 
Hungarian-American community. When I gave all of those figures, someone 
from another legislative body says, ``I do not buy any of Congressman 
Dornan's figures or percentages or statistics,'' but offered none on 
the other side. These are the facts. Get the Record from today. I would 
hope, Mr. Speaker, that any American would get the Record from today 
and read how those of us, who are not insignificant, who are fighting 
for the honor of the 58,300 men and 8 women's names who are on that 
wall who should be honored with a plaque at the apex of the wall that 
simply says, ``These good Americans died fighting Communism.'' Because 
Vietnam and Korea melted down the cold war, as its two biggest blood-
letting subsets in what John F. Kennedy called that long twilight 
struggle against communism that is not over yet. And for the 
Vietnamese-American community, as I told them up in New York on August 
19, you must study the success of the anti-Communist Cuban-American 
community and get into the political process, get your Lincoln Diaz-
Balart's and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen's and Bob Martinez's on the other side 
of the aisle, get people of your heritage elected to this body so that 
they can speak up to those who would dismiss all of this history in 
this long struggle, bloody struggle against communism that still goes 
on against China, Vietnam, North Korea, at least we kept half of that 
peninsula free, and yes, Cuba, 90 miles from Key West.

  Mr. Speaker, I will keep returning, as I told several U.S. Senators 
in conference, I will return to this issue until the day I die. The 
motto is, ``faithful until death,'' for me. I am not going to forget 
the missing or what communism did to Southeast Asia, what it did to 
Cambodia, the killing fields, Laos, Vietnam with over 100,000 executed, 
68,000 people who befriended us, thought we were a superpower and a 
reliable ally, and they were executed under death orders, under the 
same Communist killers that shake hands with Members of Congress or are 
toasted to by Members of Congress and by General Giap who is called a 
war hero. General Giap is a war criminal who ordered children to be 
killed. I shall be back on this issue.
  Mr. Speaker, I include for the Record the material previously 
referred to.
                                       American Defense Institute,


                                               Alexandria, VA,

                                               September 18, 1995.
     Hon. Robert K. Dornan,
     U.S. House of Representatives,
     Washington, DC.
       Dear Congressman Dornan: As a former POW in Vietnam and now 
     president of a defense policy organization, I strongly 
     support the 1995 House version of the Missing Persons Act 
     (H.R. 945). I am dismayed to learn of the efforts of some to 
     ``water down'' this important legislation and decrease its 
     impact.
       I can think of nothing more critical to the morale of our 
     fighting men than to know that, if they should go missing 
     while fighting America's battles, their country will do 
     everything humanly possible to determine their fate. 
     Especially in view of the tragic manner in which information 
     about our MIAs and POWs in Southeast Asia has been handled by 
     our government, active duty personnel and their families need 
     reassurance of their nation's commitment to them--and in the 
     strongest language possible!
       It is hard for me to imagine any high-ranking military 
     officer implying that limited time and resources during 
     conflict preclude accounting for missing soldiers. How can 
     such an officer possibly lead men into battle? Accounting for 
     missing personnel is a matter of military honor--and a matter 
     of national honor.
           Sincerely,

                                      Eugene ``Red'' McDaniel,

                                                  CAPT, USN (Ret),
                                                        President.
       Attachment:
       John Peter Flynn, Lt. Gen, USAF (ret).
       Robinson Risner, Brig. Gen, USAF (ret).
       Sam Johnson, Member of Congress.
       Eugene ``Red'' McDaniel, CAPT, USN (ret).
       John A. Alpers, Lt. Col, USAF (ret).
       William J. Baugh, Col, USAF (ret).
       Adkins, C. Speed, MAJ, USA (ret).
       F.C. Baldock, CDR, USN (ret).
       Carroll Beeler, CAPT, USN (ret).
       Terry L. Boyer, Lt. Col, USAF (ret).
       Cole Black, CAPT, USN (ret).
       Paul G. Brown, LtCol, USMC (ret).
       David J. Carey, CAPT, USN (ret).
       John D. Burns, CAPT, USN (ret).
       James V. DiBernado, LtCol, USMC (ret).
       F.A.W. Franke, CAPT, USN (ret).
       Wayne Goodermote, CAPT, USN (ret).
       Jay R. Jensen, Lt. Col, USAF (ret).
       James M. Hickerson, CAPT, USN (ret).
       James F. Young, Col, USAF (ret).
       J. Charles Plumb, CAPT, USN (ret).
       Larry Friese, CDR, USN (ret).
       Julius Jayroe, Col, USAF (ret).
       Bruce Seeber, Col, USAF (ret).
       Konrad Trautman, Col, USAF (ret).
       Lawrence Barbay, Lt. Col, USAF (ret).
       Ron Bliss, Capt, USAF (ret).
       Arthur Burer, Col, USAF (ret).
       James O. Hivner, Col, USAF (ret).
       Gordon A. Larson, Col, USAF (ret).
       Robert Lewis, MSgt, USA (ret).
       James L. Lamar, Col, USAF (ret).
       Armand J. Myers, Col, USAF (ret).
       Terry Uyeyama, Col, USAF (ret).
       Richard D. Vogel, Col, USAF (ret).
       Ted Guy, Col, USAF (ret).
       Paul E. Galanti, CDR, USN (ret).
       Laird Guttersen, Col, USAF (ret).
       Lawrence J. Stark, Civ.
       Michael D. Benge, Civ.
       Marion A. Marshall, Lt. Col, USAF (ret).
       Richard D. Mullen, CAPT, USN (ret).
       Philip E. Smith, Lt. Col, USAF (ret).
       William Stark, CAPT, USN (ret).
       David F. Allwine, MSgt, USA (ret).
       Bob Barrett, Col, USAF (ret).
       Jack W. Bomar, Col, USAF (ret).
       Larry J. Chesley, Lt. Col, USAF (ret).
       C.D. Rice, CDR, USN (ret).
       Robert L. Stirm, Col, USAF (ret).
       Bernard Talley, Col, USAF (ret).
       Paul Montague, Civ.
       Leo Thorsness, Col, USAF (ret).
       Robert Lerseth, CAPT, USN (ret).
       Ray A. Vodhen, CAPT, USN (ret).
       Richard G. Tangeman, CAPT, USN (ret).
       John Pitchford, Col, USAF (ret).
       Steven Long, Col, USAF (ret).
       Brian Woods, CAPT, USN (ret).
       Dale Osborne, CAPT, USN (ret).
       Ralph Galati, Maj, USAF (ret).
       Ronald M. Lebert, Lt. Col, USAF (ret).
       Harry T. Jenkins, CAPT, USN (ret).
       John C. Ensch, CAPT, USN (ret).
       Render Crayton, CAPT, USN (ret).
       Henry James Bedinger, CDR, USN (ret).
       Brian D. Woods, CAPT, USN (ret).
       Read B. Mecleary, CAPT, USN (ret).
       Ted Stier, CDR, USN (ret).
       James L. Hutton, CAPT, USN (ret).
       John H. Wendell, Lt. Col, USAF (ret).
       John W. Clark, Col, USAF (ret).
       Carl B. Crumpler, Col, USAF (ret).
       Verlyne W. Daniels, CAPT, USN (ret).
       Roger D. Ingvalson, Col, USAF (ret).
                                               September 20, 1995.
     Hon. Floyd Spence,
     U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, DC.
       Dear Congressman Spence: Strong legislation that will 
     ensure the accountability of past and future missing in 
     action (MIA) and prisoners of war (POW) is an absolute 
     necessity. The revelation in the September 18, 1995, U.S. 
     News and World Report concerning former President Bush and 
     the Vietnam POW/MIA issue confirms this necessity.
       Many former POWs, family members, activists and I have long 
     suspected and have knowledge of Hanoi continually lying about 
     the accountability of POWs and MIAs. I, and I suspect many 
     others, have felt that U.S. government officials aided and 
     abetted in these lies in an effort to save face. Thus the 
     necessity of a strong and enforceable ``Missing Persons 
     Act.''
       As you may or may not know, I was the Senior Ranking 
     Officer (SRO) of all prisoners captured in South Vietnam and 
     Laos and separately interned in North Vietnam. During and 
     after ``Operation Homecoming'' it was disclosed that some of 
     us had been declared `Killed in Action. Body not Recovered' 
     (KBNR). In at least one case, one of my enlisted men's 
     ``remains'' had been returned to the United States and 
     buried! Needless to say, he was still very much alive.
       The term missing in action (MIA) should be banished and all 
     persons who disappear during a conflict should be carried as 
     alive unless there is overwhelming evidence that survival was 
     impossible. This alive status should continue until board 
     action can determine status after the cessation of 
     hostilities. No one expects all to be accounted for, but the 
     lessons of Vietnam strongly suggest that premature actions 
     were taken. The cost of pay and allowances to the family is 
     insignificant when compared to other daily expenditures of 
     the U.S. government.
       I assure you that Senator John McCain does not speak for 
     the families of the non returned nor for the majority of the 
     returned 

[[Page H 9430]]
     POWs. As I recall, Senator McCain was the leading advocate of 
     normalization with Vietnam, a move strongly opposed by many 
     former POWs and many veterans' groups. To let McCain solely 
     influence decisions concerning the ``Missing Persons Act'' is 
     a discredit to the suffering families and concerned POWs.
           Sincerely,

                                              Theodore W. Guy,

                                                  Col. (Ret) USAF,
     Former POW 68-73.
                                                                    ____



                                                 Syracuse, NY,

                                               September 11, 1995.
     Hon. Dan Coats,
     U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
       Dear Senator Coats: As the sister of a Marine missing from 
     the Vietnam war, I implore you to support the House version 
     of The Missing Service Personnel Act of 1995. Any change from 
     the language of the House version of this Bill would be yet 
     another obstacle on the path to truth and/or closure for the 
     families of our nations missing heroes and abandonment of our 
     loved ones by this government once again.
       Sir, no one, not the President, DOD, the Service Casualty 
     Offices, nor the people supposedly responsible for accounting 
     for our missing, ever seem to listen to the voices that have 
     been screaming for help in unraveling the mystery of this 
     travesty for so many long, long years. What has happened to 
     my brother and subsequently, to his family, is a horror story 
     that at times seems unbelievable even to me. I have lost 
     faith in so many things that I held sacred and dear, my 
     President, my party, my confidence in the honor and honesty 
     of my elected officials. It appears that one of the first 
     Orders of THE NEW WORLD is to wipe the slates clean without 
     any real accounting, and to never, never use the words POW/
     MIA again.
       Please, I beg you, don't let yourself be influenced by 
     those who have their own agenda and who believe that money 
     and the love of money are more important than my brother. My 
     brother Kenny was left behind in 1967, please don't allow 
     them to leave him behind again. We, the families of the 
     missing, need this legislation as it is written by the House. 
     If you could walk in our shoes for even one day, maybe you 
     would understand why it is so important. My last attempt at 
     getting answers from our government resulted in their telling 
     me it would cost me $3,147.00 to process my FOIA request. Our 
     government lost my brother, yet they want me to pay to find 
     out how and why!
       Please do not let the language of this bill be changed in 
     any way?
           Sincerely,
     Pat Plumadore.
                                                                    ____



                                           The New York Times,

                                                    July 12, 1995.
       It may be that many Republican primary voters, a more 
     conservative subset of the more conservative party, are more 
     opposed to Mr. Clinton's action than are Americans as a 
     whole. Mr. Dole's stance may play well with them.
       But the steps along this road that Mr. Bush and Mr. Clinton 
     took earlier, including the lifting last year of a 19-year 
     embargo on trade with Vietnam, failed to produce the 
     groundswell of protest that the die-hards predicted. And 
     Vietnam is now clearly a land of opportunities, which will 
     inevitably draw much more American investment and many more 
     visits by American tourists.
       As a web of everyday political and economic links grows 
     between the United States and Vietnam, as more and more 
     Americans come to know Vietnam at peace, the old passions, 
     already nearly spent for most Americans, will seem 
     increasingly irrelevant. Normality is the enemy of grudges 
     and hatreds.
       At any rate, the deed is done. Congressional threats to 
     withhold money for an American embassy in Hanoi are likely to 
     come to nothing. Mr. Clinton acted just as the question of 
     full diplomatic ties was beginning to be sucked into the 
     vortex of the 1996 campaign. He could not have waited much 
     longer, and by moving now, he may benefit from looking 
     resolute on a tough issue.
       Reminiscing this morning with a reporter he has known since 
     the days of air raids over Hanoi and ground combat in the 
     Central Highlands, Senator McCain commented that he was 
     determined that his generation not leave a legacy of anger 
     and vindictiveness.
       ``I got over the war about 45 minutes after the plane 
     bringing me home took off from Hanoi,'' he said. ``But not 
     everyone feels that way. Some people hate me for backing 
     this, call me the Manchurian Candidate, say I'm a 
     collaborator, the most awful stuff. There will always be 
     people like that, but fewer and fewer. Not many people talk 
     about the dirty Japs anymore.''
                                                                    ____



                                          Marine Corps League,

                                               September 18, 1995.
     Hon. Robert Dole,
     U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
       Dear Senator Dole: Why haven't you used your powerful 
     position as Senate Majority Leader to push the House of 
     Representatives language of the Missing Service Personnel Act 
     of 1995?
       We support the House language of the Missing Service 
     Personnel Act of 1995.
           Semper Fidelis,
                                                    Wayne R. Sill,
                                Nat'l Chairman, POW/MIA Committee.


                            Vietnam Veterans of America, Inc.,

                                   Washington, DC, Sept. 14, 1995.
     Hon. Bob Dornan,
     House of Representatives, Washington, DC.
       Dear Representative Dornan: Vietnam Veterans of America 
     (VVA) urges you to preserve the House-passed provisions 
     derived from the Missing Service Personnel Act (Section 563) 
     as the conference committee deliberates the Defense 
     Authorization Bill (HR 1530). The House-passed provisions are 
     preferable, as they provide enhanced protection for families 
     of service personnel listed as Missing-In-Action (MIA).
       The Missing Service Personnel Act is a critical piece of 
     legislation for MIA families because it would spell out in 
     law a procedure for handling the very delicate question of 
     how and when a member of the Armed Forces considered missing-
     in-action can be declared legally dead. VVA believes this 
     legislation will correct mistakes realized in past wars. Most 
     importantly, families would know what to expect and would be 
     spared years of turmoil and pain.
       VVA greatly appreciates your strong support for this 
     legislation in the past, and urges you to maintain the House-
     passed language in the Defense Authorization conference 
     report.
           Sincerely,
                                             James L. Brazee, Jr.,
     President.
                                                                    ____

                                            Korean/Cold War Family


                                   Association of the Missing,

                                      Coppell, TX, Sept. 18, 1995.
     Representative Robert Dornan.
       Dear Sir: The families of the POW/MIA's from the Korean War 
     (8,177) and the Cold War (139) sincerely request your 
     assistance in passing the SB 256 in its original language 
     which was very similar to that of the HR 945. It has come to 
     our attention that Senator McCain and possibly others on the 
     review committee are attempting to ``water down'' this bill. 
     It is the view of the Families that this bill has already 
     been ``watered down'' in excess.
       We, the Families of the Missing, have been battling the 
     bureaucracy for over 40 years, just trying to get the truth 
     as to what happened to our loved ones. We have been shunned, 
     hung-up on, ignored, called crazy and generally demeaned for 
     requesting information to which we are entitled.
       Most importantly, the Prisoners of War and the Missing in 
     Action are denied their civil rights under the old Missing 
     Service Personnel Law. This law was intended to financially 
     assist the Families of the Missing. We did not know that this 
     law would be used to ``write off'' the Missing. Even though 
     the HR 945 is not nearly strong enough, it does give the 
     Families some recourse when the government FAILS to do its 
     duty by these Missing Service Personnel.
       There have been letters written by Generals and Department 
     of Defense personnel saying this new bill would put undue 
     burden on them to account for their troops. If this is their 
     attitude, God help the men and women they send into battle 
     because their leaders certainly will not.
       We would like to hear your response to our request.
           Most sincerely,
                                                Pat Wilson Dunton,
     President/Founding Director.
                                                                    ____



                                National Alliance of Families,

                                     Bellevue, WA, Sept. 19, 1995.
     Re U.S. House of Representatives' Version of the ``Missing 
         Service Personnel Act of 1995''
     (Attention: Mr. Duke Short.)
     Hon. Strom Thurmond,
     Chairman, Armed Services Committee,
     Washington, DC
       Dear Senator Thurmond: The more than 10,000 members of the 
     National Alliance of Families categorically support the above 
     ``House version'' of this legislation which will make great 
     strides in correcting the errors of the past and prevent a 
     repeat of those errors during future conflicts.
       Specifically, we endorse the provisions which call for 
     board review at three year intervals, access to information 
     for ``immediate'' family members, judicial review and 
     retroactivity.
       Many, including ranking military officers, are attempting 
     to water down this relevant legislation claiming ``reopening 
     and mandatory review of cases from the past . . . will only 
     cause great emotional and financial strain on the families 
     involved.'' NAF membership glaringly resents the 
     condescending and patronizing attitude of the Pentagon. Our 
     family members wish the right to choose for themselves; if 
     they will or will not avail themselves of those provisions 
     cited in the ``House version'' of the ``MSPA 1995''. For too 
     many years, the U.S. Defense Department has been allowed to 
     ``act'' on behalf of the families, choosing what information 
     was or was not submitted to the families for review. Due to 
     research in the National Archives and the Library of 
     Congress, many of our family members are only now, after 
     twenty to forty years after the fact, able to view records 
     and documents relating to their loved ones' cases which were 
     not and have not been provided to them via the military 
     casualty offices.
       The families are quite capable of acting and speaking in 
     their own behalf. We resent any attempt by those in the 
     military to portray the families as emotionally fragile, in 
     need of their protection. Our Family members do not need 
     protection. They need the truth.

[[Page H 9431]]

       In the opinion of our membership, the ``House version'' of 
     the ``Missing Service Personnel Act of 1995'' is the single 
     most important POW/MIA Legislation to come before the U.S. 
     Senate in years. The POW/MIA Families are tired of being lied 
     to, chided, and patronized by an uncaring Executive and 
     Legislative Branch of the U.S. Government. It is time that a 
     truly meaningful piece of legislation is passed to protect 
     America's fighting men and women. The old unwritten attitude 
     of ``just don't get captured'' is not acceptable! Our service 
     personnel and their families deserve protection under the 
     law. That protection will come with the passage of this law 
     as is.
           Sincerely,
                                           Dolores Apodaca Alfond,
     National Chairperson.
                                                                    ____



                            Veterans of the Vietnam War, Inc.,

                                   Dallastown, PA, Sept. 19, 1995.
     Congressman Steve Buyer,
     Attention: Myrna Dugan
       Dear Myrna Dugan: As National POW/MIA Program Director for 
     the Veterans of the Vietnam War, Inc., we need the 
     Congressman to back Congressman Gilman's language of the 
     House version of H.R. 945 so that we have the strongest 
     language possible to protect our American servicemen and 
     women. We strongly urge the Congressman to pass H.R. 945 
     ``The Missing Service Personnel Act of 1995''. We need this 
     bill passed so that the families of our POW/MIA's won't ever 
     have to endure the suffering that the Vietnam families have 
     had to and continue to endure.
       We as Veterans of the Vietnam War, Inc. want to guarantee 
     that our present and our future American servicemen and women 
     have the best chance of being returned home to their loved 
     ones. That's why we strongly urger Congressman Buyer to pass 
     this very important bill. Thank you for your help and time on 
     this urgent matter. I would greatly appreciate a response to 
     this letter on the Congressman's feelings on this matter.
                                             Michael T. Breighner,
     National POW/MIA Program Director.
                                                                    ____



                                   Disabled American Veterans,

                               Washington, DC, September 20, 1995.
     Hon. Strom Thurmond,
     Chairman, Senate Committee on Armed Services, Russell Senate 
         Office Building, Washington, DC.
       Dear Chairman Thurmond: As National Commander of the more 
     than one million members of the Disabled American Veterans 
     (DAV) and its Auxiliary, I am writing you to express our 
     concern regarding attempts to erode the effectiveness of the 
     provisions of the Missing Service Personnel Act, section 563 
     of H.R. 1530, the Fiscal Year 1996 Defense Authorization Act.
       The DAV supports the House language in the Missing Service 
     Personnel Act because of the additional safeguards contained 
     in the House version. The key provisions include: legal 
     counsel for the missing person, access to information by 
     immediate family members of the missing person, the 
     availability of judicial review, and the retroactive 
     provision of this legislation. We believe that these are 
     important provisions; however, these provisions are missing 
     from the Senate version.
       As this measure is being considered in conference, I would 
     urge you, in your leadership position, to encourage your 
     colleagues to support the inclusion of these key provisions 
     in the final version of the Defense Authorization Act. 
     Otherwise, it is DAV's position that this legislation would 
     be seriously flawed.
       Thank you for your continued support.
           Sincerely,
                                          Thomas A. McMasters III,
     National Commander.
                                                                    ____



                                          The American Legion,

                               Washington, DC, September 11, 1995.
     Hon. Daniel R. Coats,
     Chairman, Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel, 
         Russell Building, Washington, DC.
       Dear Senator Coats: The American Legion urges you in the 
     strongest possible terms to support Section 563, H.R. 1530, 
     the House version of the Missing Persons Act of 1995. In 
     particular, there are four features of the bill we are 
     interested in: board review at three year intervals; access 
     to information for immediate family members; judicial review; 
     and retroactivity. Senator Robert Dole has expressed his 
     support of the House version of the Missing Persons Act in a 
     written statement for the Congressional Record on September 
     5. We have worked very closely with Senator Dole on this 
     issue for some time.
       The House version of the Missing Persons Act will provide 
     family members the ability to review records on which the 
     Pentagon has kept close hold but that family members have the 
     right to see.
       The American Legion takes this issue very seriously and 
     regards its passage as extremely important. This measure 
     directly and substantially supports ongoing efforts to obtain 
     information about missing American servicemen. Section 563, 
     H.R. 1530 will provide an equitable basis for making status 
     determinations on missing personnel not only from past wars, 
     but also future conflicts.
           Sincerely,
                                              John F. Sommer, Jr.,
     Executive Director.
                                                                    ____

                                               September 12, 1995.
     Senator Trent Lott,
     U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
       Dear Senator Lott: As the sister of Maj. Robert F. Coady, 
     USAF, lost in Laos whose family believed the Air Force when 
     they told us that we would be the first to know if there was 
     information on Maj. Coady. Our first knowledge of information 
     came 22 years after my brother's shoot down, when I requested 
     to see my brother's file. I was amazed to find declassified 
     documents that were 19 and 22 years old. I worked with 
     Senators Shelby, Heflin, Mack and Johnson who wrote letters 
     on my behalf. The Air Force told the Senators that I had all 
     the information. I was given an opportunity to view my 
     brother's file (after being told there was no more 
     information) only to find new information.
       We all remember what the Cold War families were told and 
     the family from TN whose son was killed in the Gulf War by 
     friendly fire. Along with what has happened in my family's 
     case are disgraceful examples that explain the importance of 
     the House version (H.R. 945) of the Missing Service Personnel 
     Act.
       Our country was founded on checks and balances. The House 
     version (H.R. 945) of the Missing Service Personnel Act is 
     our check and balance for family members that should not be 
     taken away from us.
       As a United States Senator, please protect our right to 
     reopen and have a mandatory review as this is the only check 
     and balance we have left.
           Sincerely,
     Judith Coady Rainey.

                          ____________________